Now, to explain my situation a little. Kiln temperatures are measured in cones. 010 being low and cone 10 being high. I have about 100lbs of cone 10 clay (high temp fire). I mixed this stoneware claybody at ECU when I graduated. I have decided to fire to cone 6 (med temp fire).
There could be all kinds of problems when doing this.
- The clay body will be less vitrified or the clay not fire completely.
Vitrified definition: to convert into glass or a glassy substance by heat and fusion.
-The glaze may not fit.
-There may be crawling or cracks in the glaze.
So I was hesitant and ready to see if I could get these Amaco cone 6 glazes to fit my homemade cone 10 claybody.
Here are the three colors I started with: white, frosted turquoise, frosted melon
Loading the kiln. The object on the left is a cone pack with pyrometric cones. These are little triangle things that measure temperatures. I have cone 5, 6, and 7 in this cone pack. I am setting the kiln to 2200 degrees. This is right between cone 6 and 7. I did this in hopes of definitely hitting cone 6.
It's working! Temp: 1847.
And the firing is complete! My three test objects stayed intact, no glazes ran or moved and they seem to fit. The kiln only went to cone 5 but it still seemed it work.
I have a long way to go but this test firing was a success!!! I cannot wait to keep firing.
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